Nomination of Adalberto Jose Jordan to be United States Circuit Judge for the Eleventh Circuit

Floor Speech

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Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I rise today to recognize an important milestone in our Nation's history.

On February 14, 1912, Arizona officially became the 48th member of these 50 United States. I am proud to salute my home State on this her centennial celebration.

Yes, we were the last of the contiguous 48 States to join, but we were certainly not the least of them. Today I would like to tell you just a little bit about why I say that is so.

Arizona is not the largest or the oldest member of the Union. It did not participate in the Revolutionary War. It does not border an ocean or one of the Great Lakes. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution do not bear a single Arizonan signature. Yet there is something about Arizona that is great, something that truly sets the Grand Canyon State apart from the rest. The Grand Canyon, of course, comes to mind.

I would like to quote one of America's most famous explorers, John Wesley Powell, who once said:

The wonders of the Grand Canyon cannot be adequately represented in symbols of speech, nor by speech itself. The resources of the graphic art are taxed beyond their powers in attempting to portray its features. Language and illustration combined must fail.

I agree. I have hiked the Grand Canyon. I have seen it from above, and I have seen it from below. Words literally cannot describe its power or its beauty. That is why every year millions of tourists come from all corners of our Nation and from across the Atlantic and the Pacific to experience the majesty we are fortunate enough to have right there in our own backyard.

But as big as it is, the Grand Canyon is just a small part of the Arizona story. There are the Sedona Red Rocks, the beautiful White Mountains, the Painted Desert, the Petrified Forest, Monument Valley, Saguaro National Park, the 12,000-foot San Francisco Peaks, and countless other natural wonders that span across our deserts and through our forests. There are almost 4,000 peaks and summits in our State alone.

Arizona is also home to manmade marvels, including innovative projects that have allowed much needed freshwater to flow to our communities. These include the Hoover Dam, the Glen Canyon Dam, the Central Arizona Project, the Salt River Project and its keystone element, and the Theodore Roosevelt Dam.

Arizonans share the land with owls, ocelots, and eagles, jaguars, lots of rattlesnakes, and falcons. Our landscape is foliated not just with agave and cacti but with majestic aspen, fir, and spruce and the largest Ponderosa pine forest in the world.

We are rich in natural resources. From an early age, all Arizonans learn about the State's five Cs: copper, cattle, cotton, citrus, and climate.

Copper. The mineral that attracted many Arizonans to our State in the first place has been used by American Indians in tool and weaponmaking for centuries. Today, Arizona produces more copper than every other State combined, and it is now being used to develop the alternative energy technologies and vehicles of tomorrow.

Cattle. Along with sheep and hogs, the ranching of cattle is deeply imprinted on our State's cowboy culture and continues to help drive our economy today.

Cotton. One of our most important cash crops at the turn of the last century, cotton is still an important industry in our State. This crop, including our very own Pima long-staple variety, is used to produce the clothing, fertilizer, fuel, and cooking oil used by millions of Americans every day.

Citrus. The harvesting of fruits such as lemons and oranges is one of the important elements of Arizona's agricultural industry, with a history that runs deep in our State. We now export about $40 million in fruits and preparations every year.

Climate. Arizona mornings are warm and filled with sunshine, and our sunsets are the best anywhere. We may not always have a white Christmas, but we do have a booming tourism industry that attracts nearly 37 million--we call them snowbirds, conservationists, and adventurers--every year.

These five Cs, along with the natural treasures I mentioned earlier, are the physical expression of our State motto: ``Ditat Deus'' or ``God Enriches.'' Because of this, Arizonans are fiercely protective of the ecological riches that exist around them.

We honor nature for its beauty, but we also respect

it for its power. I do not need to tell you about Arizona's heat. Some of my colleagues in this Chamber are known to complain when it reaches 80 degrees in Washington. Well, we Arizonans start to get warm when the mercury hits 120. It gets cold at night too. In fact, Arizona can yield the Nation's highest and lowest temperatures in the very same day.

There are forest fires. Last summer, we saw the largest such fire in our history, the Wallow megafire, burn more than 840 square miles of our treasured landscape. But we have picked ourselves up, and we are rebuilding--just like we always do. The lessons we have learned from the Wallow fire will help us defend against similar megafires in the future.

Some of Arizona's forebears were the prospectors and the ranchers who gave up everything for a chance at a better life. Some were the adventurers and cowboys who thrived on freedom and danger. Some of us can trace our history directly back to the Spanish missionaries or to our longstanding dynamic Hispanic community that has so greatly influenced our distinctive culture and cuisine. Many of us are direct descendants of the very first Arizonans--the 21 great American Indian tribes who continue to teach us important lessons about working with rather than against the expansive natural beauty and danger that surrounds us.

These are Arizona's founding fathers. While each has influenced our State in a unique way, all share these common traits: a strong sense of independence and a willingness to persevere against the odds.

That is, I believe, one of the reasons Arizona has such outsized national influence compared to its relatively small size and population. Indeed, the fierce wind of independence that rolls across our desert landscape has propelled not one but two of our leaders to national political prominence in just the past few decades. We may not have had an Arizonan in the White House--yet--but there are few States that can boast a single 20th or 21st century major party Presidential nominee, let alone two in our Barry Goldwater and John McCain.

My friends on the other side of the aisle will no doubt recall their very able Senate majority leader from Arizona, Ernest McFarland. They will also remember Representative Mo Udall and Senator Carl Hayden, who served an amazing 57 years in Congress, 42 of them in this Chamber alone. To put that into perspective, that is longer than Arizona's senior Senator and I have served in the Congress combined.

Our State has both nurtured and welcomed respected jurists such as William Rehnquist and Sandra Day O'Connor, world-renowned architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, entertainers such as Waylon Jennings, Linda Ronstadt, and Glen Campbell--even Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight series. Also, of course, I would be remiss if I neglected Steven Spielberg. He, too, embraced Arizona's adventurous, entrepreneurial spirit, turning his teenage moviemaking hobby in Scottsdale and Phoenix into a multimillion-dollar Hollywood empire. Had he been raised in another State, one without our Arizona spirit, would the world have known classics today such as ``ET'' and ``Jaws''? We may never know.

One thing we do know is that Arizona also gave rise to the Navajo Code Talkers. It is a shame more Americans are not aware of the talkers' incredible story. Their official Web site puts it this way:

It is a great American story that is still largely unknown--the story of a group of young Navajo men who answered the call of duty, who performed a service no one else could, and in the process became great warriors and patriots. Their unbreakable code saved thousands of lives and helped end World War II.

Their code, of course, was the Navajo language.

Some of those young men were simple sheepherders on Arizona's great Navajo reservation until our Nation called them to serve. They did so with honor. They became American heroes in the process. Without them, we may never have achieved victory in the Pacific theater, and I am proud to pay tribute to these warriors today. Arizona honors them, and every American owes the Code Talkers a debt of gratitude.

These are just some of the many reasons I am proud to call myself an Arizonian. I was not born in Arizona. I became one by choice, and it was one of the most consequential decisions I ever made. I came as a young man to attend the University of Arizona. There I met my wife Carol, and together we raised two children, both of whom I am proud to say learned their five Cs from a very early age. I have not left Arizona since my days at the University of Arizona, nor do I think I ever would or could. There is something about the beauty that surrounds, the spirit that encompasses, the Sun that paints the landscape every morning. There is something different about Arizona, and I am proud of that difference. We are a special people with a distinctive place in the American mosaic.

I offer my congratulations to our Governor Jan Brewer, to my Arizona colleagues in the House and Senate, and to my constituents throughout our State on this historic centennial anniversary.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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